CIE Expert Group on connected cycling and ITS now operational

Cycling Industries Europe’s (CIE) Expert Group on connected cycling and Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) is now up and running with around 20 companies actively participating.

There is said to be a huge need to transform transport emissions in the EU as part of the Green Deal, and the Group looks to address these through collaborative cycling research and data collection. However, actions on local and urban transport are said to be currently limited.

Three examples of some ‘critical topics’ are:

• The lack of a common standard description for cycling infrastructure across the EU, and therefore no common standard for digital representation of cycling infrastructure, a legally binding requirement for EU member states to provide by 2023. The EU Commission has asked CIE to provide experts and partners to work on this challenge with member states
• A complex discussion about the standard for bike sharing data to be used by cities and as an input to multi-modal data sets which will be used for Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS). In the U.S. the competing philosophies on data sharing have seen Uber and the city of Los Angeles end up in legal action, while in the EU GDPR is a different framework which requires groups to create a European solution for data sharing which serves everyone
• Cities and partnerships are coming to CIE asking for help with what smart cycling actually means and how to find commercial partners who can support their local needs, rather than have to research the many providers, products and services in the field.

To respond to these and other challenges, the CIE Expert Group has decided to start working and cataloguing the initiatives and opportunities for cycling ITS under four provisional headings which aim to help the next steps of advocacy and projects.

• MaaS – working with the CIE Bike Share Expert Group and supported by a new CIE membership of the MaaS Alliance
• Bike technology and tools improving rider experience. Working with companies that create applications, devices, routing, gamification, reporting, on-bike control systems, automation etc. to build an overall catalogue of smart cycling technologies
• Connected, collaborative and automated mobility (CCAM) is a big and complex field which includes all the EU regulatory work on automated driving
• Data to ensure that the data needs of the three areas above are supported and coordinated. This will reportedly be addressed in multiple ways as the Expert Group evolves.